The Ass And The Load Of Salt

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  "title": "The Ass And The Load Of Salt",
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  "summary": "\"The Ass And The Load Of Salt\" is a short fable by Aesop in which a cunning donkey discovers that falling into a river melts his heavy load of salt — and decides to make it a habit. What begins as a lucky accident becomes a deliberate scheme, much to his merchant owner's fury. When the merchant replaces the salt with sponges, the donkey's clever trick turns against him in the most waterlogged way possible, leaving him far worse off than before.",
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    "A Merchant, driving his Ass homeward from the seashore with a heavy load of salt, came to a river crossed by a shallow ford. They had crossed this river many times before without accident, but this time the Ass slipped and fell when halfway over. And when the Merchant at last got him to his feet, much of the salt had melted away. Delighted to find how much lighter his burden had become, the Ass finished the journey very gayly.",
    "Next day the Merchant went for another load of salt. On the way home the Ass, remembering what had happened at the ford, purposely let himself fall into the water, and again got rid of most of his burden.",
    "The angry Merchant immediately turned about and drove the Ass back to the seashore, where he loaded him with two great baskets of sponges. At the ford the Ass again tumbled over; but when he had scrambled to his feet, it was a very disconsolate Ass that dragged himself homeward under a load ten times heavier than before.",
    "Aesop was an ancient Greek storyteller, believed to have lived around 620–564 BCE, whose fables have shaped moral literature across centuries and cultures. His tales typically feature animals whose flaws and schemes illuminate very human failings. \"The Ass And The Load Of Salt\" is a particularly neat example of his style — a single repeated action, a sharp reversal, and a lesson delivered without a word of preaching."
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  "body_text": "A Merchant, driving his Ass homeward from the seashore with a heavy load of salt, came to a river crossed by a shallow ford. They had crossed this river many times before without accident, but this time the Ass slipped and fell when halfway over. And when the Merchant at last got him to his feet, much of the salt had melted away. Delighted to find how much lighter his burden had become, the Ass finished the journey very gayly.\n\nNext day the Merchant went for another load of salt. On the way home the Ass, remembering what had happened at the ford, purposely let himself fall into the water, and again got rid of most of his burden.\n\nThe angry Merchant immediately turned about and drove the Ass back to the seashore, where he loaded him with two great baskets of sponges. At the ford the Ass again tumbled over; but when he had scrambled to his feet, it was a very disconsolate Ass that dragged himself homeward under a load ten times heavier than before.\n\nAesop was an ancient Greek storyteller, believed to have lived around 620–564 BCE, whose fables have shaped moral literature across centuries and cultures. His tales typically feature animals whose flaws and schemes illuminate very human failings. \"The Ass And The Load Of Salt\" is a particularly neat example of his style — a single repeated action, a sharp reversal, and a lesson delivered without a word of preaching.",
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